Help me decide.

Jony27

Jony27

Jony27

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Hi, im currently looking at new phones for Christmas and i am torn between the following:

Motorola Razr I @ £18.50/month
Samsung Galaxy S2 @ £21.50/month
Samsung Galaxy S3 mini @ £21.50/month
Nokia Lumia 820 @ £27/month
HTC One S @ £27/month
Samsung Galaxy S3 @ £27/month
HTC One X @ £29/month

all in 24 months contract with Tesco (o2 Sim), hence the lack of choices as they dont seem to stock any of the HTC Win8 Phones as well as the Nexus 4.

I would like to know if the S3 is worth that much over the S2, and is the price of the S3 worth it over the S3 mini?

and is there anything new coming in in the following months or two worth waiting ?

thanks :)
 
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What the hell?! :eek: Those prices are a rip of! Can get much better deals than that, even if it is on o2 network via other sites etc. i.e. one S should be no more than £22, one X no more than £27 and so on. Only good deal there is the RAZR I

What sort of minutes, texts and data do they come with?

As to the phones themselves (including the X+, XL, if you can get them via tesco or elsewhere), wrote a similar post here (edited a bit):

Also included the note II :p Personally I wouldn't bother with the GS 2 now (especially when you could get a better phone all round, RAZR I, one S etc. for not much more)

Nexus18 said:
If size isn't an issue, the note II, if it is then look at the following:

- HTC one XL, X+, X and one S
- GS 3
- RAZR I

Screen is personal preference.

LCD

pure whites, natural colours, sharper/clearer, more power efficient on bright colours

VS

SAMOLED

true blacks, saturated colours and better viewing angles overall, more power efficient on dark colours
Click to expand...

Design is personal preference.

Software skin is personal preference. The RAZR I is as close to stock android that you will get.

Build and perceived quality in order of best (IMO)

1. one s (aluminium uni-body) RAZR I (aluminium frame with a kevlar back)
2. One X+, XL, X (polycarbonate uni-body with a nice finish like the nokia lumia)
3. note II, GS 3 (glossy brushed plastic)

Storage:

Note II and GS 3 have 16GB internal storage and a SD slot
RAZR I has 8GB internal storage and a SD slot
One X+ has 64 GB internal storage and no SD slot
One XL and X has 32GB internal storage and no SD slot
One S has 16GB internal storage (which is really about 10-11GB for music, videos etc. and 2.21GB for apps) and no SD slot

Hardware:

1. one S, XL and GS 3 LTE along with the note II
2. one X+, X
3. RAZR I

One XL and one S use the dual core S4, which is very good and overall better than the exynos quad chipset used in the note II and GS 3, but the note II and GS 3 LTE have an extra GB of RAM

One X+ and X uses tegra 3, which is well.......pretty poop in comparison :p But good enough for most tasks.

The RAZR I uses uses a single core intel CPU (although it supports hyer threading, so in theory it acts as a dual core CPU) although the performance is actually very good.

Camera:

All (except the RAZR I, it doesn't hold up very well against the GS 3, one S etc.) are more or less the same, some perform better in certain scenarios where as the others would perform better in other conditions. The 1080P recording is much better on the GS 3 and note II in terms of smoothness and light metering. Camera UI and features is better on the one series.

Audio:

They are all more or less the same (except the RAZR I, it is worse than all of them), unless you are an audiophile I doubt you will notice the difference :p

NLED:

The RAZR I, note II and GS 3 have a far better NLED over the one series.

Battery:

The note II is the best followed by the RAZR I, XL, S and then the GS 3. Not sure about the X+, but it would be more or less the same as the GS 3.

Also, the note II and GS 3 are the only phones mentioned here that have a removable battery.


I wouldn't worry about 4G, 3G is still more than good enough for now, but the XL, note II support it and there is a LTE GS 3 model (which also comes with another GB of RAM)
Click to expand...

Best to just have a play with all yourself and decide.

Regarding any new phones coming out soon:

The HTC butterfly will be out soon (this month or next) and it will be the best/most complete package there is then:

- 1080P SLCD 3 IPS 5" screen
- same camera as the X/S (jellybean/sense V4+ has improved the quality etc. even further) and the front camera is very good (2.1 MP, 1080p@30fps), 1080P recording looks far better than the X etc. and S, as good as the GS 3 1080P recording all round
- same hardware as the nexus 4
- supports LTE
- SD slot
- great battery life

etc.

As said, forget about the GS 3 mini , it is a joke of a phone, doesn't deserve the galaxy brand name, the galaxy S2 is the better phone.

Seriously though, have a look elsewhere as you can do far better than that for deals/price, here are just some sites that you can have a look at:

http://www.buymobilephones.net/

http://www.affordablemobiles.co.uk/

http://www.mobilephonesdirect.co.uk/

Oh and for the one S, you have two versions, one has a superior CPU chipset, the S4 clocked at 1.5GHz and the inferior version has a S3 chipset clocked at 1.7GHz, the S3 chipset won't be as good for performance and battery life
 
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Thanks Nexus18, looking at prices from those websites, it does seem that Tesco's prices are a rip off! :eek:

Leaning towards the S3 for now, but will look at prices from other websites for comparison.
considering the RAZR I due to the SD slot, and with the ONE series not having one, its pushing me away from it.

and to answer your question, most of them have the basic package
100mins/unlimited texts
500mb data.
 
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No problem :)

Tesco can be pretty expensive a lot of of the time, but the good thing about them is that they can offer much better deals for minutes, texts and data allowance compared to the official o2 deals, despite using the same network etc. :p They also have some amazing special deals every now and then. Unfortunately other networks like T-mobile, 3 etc. often have the far better package on the whole compared to o2 though.

That deal for the RAZR I is pretty good!
 
yeah i noticed that tesco can be cheaper on many things than the official o2 site.

its between the
RAZR I due to the cost @ £19.50/month
S3 due to the suggestions @ £27/month
IPhone 4S well just because its an IPhone :rolleyes: @ £28/month

all prices are from affordablemobiles.
also, what does it mean if the item is on high demand, like will it take them long to ship it than normal?
 
Firstly, forget the 4s!!!! :p :D

Hmm, where does it say that? Doubt it would take longer to ship, just probably stating that it is very popular and has the risk of being sold out soon?

Main differences between the RAZR I and GS 3 are:

- screen size and quality (GS 3 is better)
- camera (GS 3 is better)
- audio (GS 3 is better)
- battery life (RAZR I is better)
- build/perceived quality (RAZR I is better)
- software skin (personal preference, but the new touchwiz does have some great features now)

GSMarena do good reviews, have a read through them to get a better idea of the phones:

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i9300_galaxy_s_iii-review-761.php

http://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_razr_i_xt890-review-828.php

Regarding their battery benchmark, don't base too much on that as it doesn't relate to real world usage and can often be wrong (i.e. the one X is rated pretty high but in real world usage it is poor)

Also, one thing to watch out for is Motorola's poor support for UK devices, the RAZR I has been confirmed to get jellybean but no idea as to when (the RAZR M, HD etc. in the USA have been updated), you would think being in bed with google now and sticking to more or less stock android would mean that they could get updates out a lot quicker. The GS 3 has jellybean.
 
haha, its just that my mom was looking at the 4S too :)
and it said "on high demand" for the 4S.

sigh, the more i look at reviews/videos, the harder it is to decide :(
i would've gone for the One S if it had a SD card slot (really need one as i have a 16GB mSD card with a lot of stuff in it, unless moving these files to the One S is easy?)
edit: just found out neither of those sites seem to stock the One S.

and by better, do you mean noticeably better or just marginally?

sorry for all the questions, just don't want to stick with a phone for 2 years knowing i could've had a better one :rolleyes:
 
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The Samsung galaxy 3 easily.
If you're on a tight budget the S2 is a good option. It might be an older gen but it's still a great smartphone.

Never used or seen the S3 mini, so I can't have a say on that.
 
Pffft, tell her to forget about it too! :p

It is as easy as it is on any android based phone;

- use whatever phone you currently have with your SD in it, plug into the PC
- select the option "mount as storage device" or something along those lines on your phone
- on your PC, the phone/SD card should be shown under "my computer"
- highlight all the stuff you want from the SD card, right click and copy
- paste somewhere onto your hard drive

and if you get the S, same steps. Plug phone in etc. find the files, highlight all the files you want, copy and paste onto the SD partition of the one S.

For the screen (in terms of sharpness and size), battery, camera, build & perceived quality, yes the difference between them is noticeable, regarding the audio, I can't give my own view on the RAZR I audio, but according to gsmarena's test it is worse than the GS 3 by quite a bit.

hardware tech for smartphones move at such a fast rate these days that the phone is pretty much old tech. 3 months later :( :o The next lot of android phones won't be HUGELY better, screens will be 1080P, better battery life (probably matching the RAZR I, note II levels etc.) etc.

I would try to look at the one XL (T mobile only at the minute for contracts) or X+ as well, if possible.
 
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ok.

i think im pretty much set on the GS3 White for £27/month with Unlimited mins/texts and 1GB data from affordablemobiles.co.uk

would just like to know, what does this mean
12 Months Half Price Line Rental By Redemption
Click to expand...
it says that the phone was £36/month but reduced to £27/month, does it mean that after 1 year, it will go back up to £36/month?

and, how do i persuade my mom to stay away from the 4S?
she pretty much doesn't care about all the stuff you have just told me, she just wants one because, its an IPhone :rolleyes:
 
Pretty much cashback.

I think that it will be £27 regardless, half price would be more than £9 off, not 100% sure, am sure kona will confirm.

Although I just had a quick look there and found better deals, on other networks though:

https://www.secure-mobiles.com/chec...0OTgiO319czo2OiJyYW5kb20iO2k6MTM1NTY3NDk1Njt9

http://phone-shop.tesco.com/mobile-...II-White-6aee0601-2a63-4760-9f42-2481ac8aad2a


Just tell her that she is paying more/the same for a device, which is inferior overall :p Get a good windows 8 phone or the GS 3 for that sort of price.
 
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That deal is not very clear. I think it means pay £36 for 24 months and you have to claim back 12 months at half price. In the end after claiming cashback it works out £27 pm.
 
kona786 said:
That deal is not very clear. I think it means pay £36 for 24 months and you have to claim back 12 months at half price. In the end after claiming cashback it works out £27 pm.
Click to expand...

Yeah, very poorly worded/laid out.

At first I thought the same, but edited my post there, cause if it was half price line rental, would it not then be £18 a month?

EDIT:

I am confusing myself even more now by looking into this deal :p :o

Right so:

24 X 36 = £864
24 x 27 = £648
(12x27) + (12x36) = £756
24 X (27/2) = £324
24 X (36/2) = £432
 
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